The first word we learn when we start taking an Italian course is almost always “ciao.” It means “hello” or “goodbye,” and it’s so ubiquitous that even people who haven’t taken an Italian lesson in their life know exactly what it means and how to use it. Or, so they think. Unfortunately, ciao isn’t as…
The Italian Post Office: It’s Not Just for Mail
If you are already an American living in Italy, you are surely familiar with the Italian postal service. It’s the service that always loses your care packages from home, right? And the post office is where you go to stand in line to pick up that package when it finally arrives and you weren’t home…
What (or Who) Is La Befana?
Buon Anno a tutti! It’s my first post of 2022, and I’m glad to be back after taking some time off for the holidays. But wait! The holidays aren’t over in Italy just yet! We’ve stuffed ourselves with a big meal on Christmas Eve that lasted until midnight. We had a big Christmas lunch. We…
Why Italy Doesn’t Celebrate Halloween
As an American in America, I used to absolutely LOVE Halloween. It was my favorite holiday! I couldn’t get enough of the candy and the costumes and all the fun spookiness. Once I started spending most of my Halloweens as an American in Italy, however, I noticed that I was pretty much the only one…
4 Italian Customs Americans Aren’t Used To
We’ve already talked about Italian table manners in a previous post, and what you need to do (or not do) so that you don’t look out of place when eating meal with an Italian family. Today we’re leaving the kitchen (mostly… but seriously, do Italians every truly leave the kitchen?) and talking about general customs…